Edit/Update: It turns out that my last name has a capitol letter in the middle and they put a space in it. Thank god. I can actually vote this year.
As a European, the whole registering to vote thing is honestly one of the wildest parts of the US elections to me. It’s so unnecessary complicated and prone to errors/manipulation. I just have to show up with my ID, doesn’t matter if it’s for the EU parliament or the local city senate.
It’s by design. We could make it easier, but certain groups benefit from making it difficult.
The OSCE reports are usually just shy of scathing. The US reaction to those missions ranges, as far as I’m aware, from being completely oblivious to it or its results to Sheriffs trying to arrest observers.
On the one hand, the UN making a resolution that they won’t trust the results of the US elections would play right into the hands of what some MAGAs are saying.
But MAGAs then agreeing to any UN resolution, especially one that requires third party oversight…
I’d say the odds are even on this.
It’s wild.
There are some local and state governments trying to pass automatic voter registration, but it’s an uphill battle, not unlike most things that would generally benefit the public good in this country.
Even in California, we got automatic voter registration passed the legislature, only for the governor to veto it.
Just wild that something so fundamental to a functioning democracy is so divisive.
There’s never been a United States ID card, for… reasons. As a Californian, I could get a California ID card, at the same place I got my California Driver’s License, if I didn’t intend to drive. The forms have the option of adding Voter Registration using the same information (birth certificate, proof of residence) at the same time. But some states make it all much more complicated.
United States ID card
Passport seems like it sorta fits, but it’s hardly universal.
So… I’m in Texas , been here a long time.
most ballot counts in the primaries and general are counted by secret software and hardware run by ultra conservative families the last 20 plus years. Recounts are not allowed and exit polls not used anymore because of unpredictability.
Nobody cares, no political party wants to change : not a topic in forums anywhere, even in conspiracy minded chat rooms, and it’s been this way forever ( since before 2000).
There is a ton of crazy that is ignored .
I’ve seen how the system works, I’ve been at the county chair level. Nobody will criticize it . There is a quiet culture of people knowing it’s invalid but decide to leave it be.
Yeah but we have voter id. And for some reason Americans think it is unreasonable to have to have a government issued ID as this would disenfranchise all the people that don’t have an ID… Which I think is also weird. Just make IDs accessible to citizens at low costs and implement voterID across the board.
A certain political party benefits from low voter turnout. Which, coincidentally, also happens to be the party working to get Trump elected and shield him from the repercussions of his crimes.
They could just make a government ID that is not mandatory. Much like a passport. And whoever holds a passport or a voluntary govt ID is automatically enabled to vote using their ID / passport, but then would still leave the choice of manually registering for voting for those who don’t trust “the government” and don’t want a govt ID
Why? The whole “illegals are voting” will be dead in the water. And requiring someone to be able to ID themselves using a government issued and official ID when performing stuff like voting is not weird. The whole convoluted show up with birth certificate yadda yadda is.
the sound bites you hear about voting are intentionally misleading: you have to show up with an id to vote here too and that’s not where to controversy lies; but the soundbites are setup to make it sound like it is to engender the reaction you’ve shared.
the controversy is registering to vote; not voting; and the conservative states intentionally make registering as heavily bureaucratic as possible in the hopes of minimizing the number of people who can successfully finish to process of registration.
they’ve also dedicated hundreds of millions on dollars to understand and enact policies to keep the poor and minority groups from voting.
usually democrats sit back and let republicans openly do it, but sometimes democrats do it themselves; the democratic governor of california just made automatic voter registration illegal; just as the conservative states do.
the reason why we have this mess is because the states get to make up whatever rules they want around voting so long as they never officially block you from voting. doing so would force the federal government to step in, so the red & purple states are careful not to poke that bear and instead focus their voter suppression efforts on the aspects of voting that previous court cases had decided that federal government has no say: like registration.
biden won because most of the battleground states managed to make registration & voting easier; like the example you shared (except mn is not a battleground state); and they’ve all since then repealed that easier access.
Depends on the country though. In France you must be registered to vote (you’re assigned a specific voting office). It’s a single registration foe everything, not for each vote
Although the process is online, and takes like 5mins.
You also get a voting card, but it’s technically optional, it just speeds up the process in the voting office.
Imagine you moved countries, and were entitled to vote in both.
You have to tell the new country you exist there.
That’s the most common failure mode in the US, when you move states or even counties and there’s a miscommunication or lack of communication between where you came from and where you are. There is no top level federal voter database.
There are other issues, but this is the most common.
You don’t vote at a federal level, you vote at a state level, for federal stuff. (And state/local stuff)
I think for most people in the US when you move you have to get a new driver’s license, and that process also lets you register to vote as an automatic bonus if you check a box saying you want it
Are there people of voting age that are exempt from paying taxes? Because I’m pretty sure the federal government has a huge database of its citizens already through the IRS. People who became adults after the last tax season and people committing tax fraud would need to register manually once, but I don’t think that’s such a big risk.
As a European, the whole registering to vote thing is honestly one of the wildest parts of the US elections to me. It’s so unnecessary complicated and prone to errors/manipulation. I just have to show up with my ID, doesn’t matter if it’s for the EU parliament or the local city senate.
I see comments like this a lot. Most important and apparently most difficult for Europeans (and others but it’s almost always Europeans) to understand is that the US is a very large country, made up of 50 semi-independent states, each with its own government and laws-- about many things, not just elections. So that’s why things are more complex here–we’re not a small monolithic nation with one single, centralized government and set of laws that apply to everyone no matter where in the country they live.
Each US State runs its own elections; a person obviously can’t be allowed to vote in more than one state. Since people can move from one state to another at any time, and even have residences in more than one state at the same time (such as college students and well-off people), it’s necessary to register with the state you will be voting in, so that you are officially able to vote in that state and no other.
update response to the replies: Funny, the replies to this post comparing the situation to that of their country with the EU is basically the relationship I was trying to explain, yet they think they have somehow refuted what I said, when actually they validated what I said. Here’s what’s really “wild”: First you call our system stupid, then when I explain our system to you, you say, “But that’s just like our system!” and then downvote me for making you realize that what you called stupid is what you also have. 😄
Read the original comment condescendingly asking “Why do you have to register to vote?” yet they are also registered to vote in their own country, but don’t even realize it because it was done automatically for them as a citizen. Your government has to track who is eligible to vote[1] and therefore in EU elections as well, one way or another, even if you don’t use the word “registered” for it.
BTW, Many US States also automatically register their residents to vote (though a person can optionally refuse that); other US states expect you to register for it yourself (perhaps some European countries too?). Each state makes its own laws about that. Once registered in a state, we can also vote in our Federal elections, just like you can vote in EU elections.
[1] Example: Germany voter eligibility:
Generally, to be allowed to vote in Germany, you need to be a German citizen who is at least 18 years old. You must also have been officially registered in the place where you’re voting, such as Berlin, for at least three months, and you must not be excluded from voting for other reasons (for example, if a court took away your right to vote because you were deemed legally incapable of making your own decisions).
You do realize some countries in Europe have federal governments (Germany for example), right? And then these completely independent countries are part of the EU which have EU elections. So you have federation within federation. Also, the EU has higher population than the USA. We don’t even all speak the same language. We are allowed to move between EU countries whenever we like and have residence where we please.
I think its not Europeans that don’t understand.
update: In case it is not clear, being registered automatically is the same as not having to register, which is what the post is about. Idk what that update word salad is supposed to be or why it is an update instead of a reply.
It’s overblown. It’s mostly propaganda.
I just have to show up with my ID
My ID is good for 5 years, and I am required to update it within 60 days of changing residences. Every time I’ve renewed or updated it, they have asked me if I wanted to register or update my voter registration. My registration is updated every time I vote, and I don’t get de-registered unless I skip voting for about a decade straight, without re-registering when I renew my ID card.
ALL of the problems with voter registration are about people who either can’t or won’t get or renew their ID card. Every time you read about voter registration issues in the US, you should imagine going to your polling station without a current ID card.
That’s called privilege. You literally don’t realize what a burden it is for some people to comply with voter registration requirements, because your life is such that it’s easy for you.
I could try and explain it, but in my experience every example I give, you’ll take out of context and come up with a simple fix. Because you aren’t able to understand the cumulative effect of thousands of these examples all happening all the time. You’ll just pick each one, imagine it happening to you in your life once, and think “oh that’s not a big deal I could handle that”. But it’s death by a thousand cuts. “That” is not a one time aberration. Your whole life is nothing but “that”.
You just have to believe those of us more experienced in that kind of hardship than you.
Or, alternatively, believe the Republicans who have been caught on a hot mic saying that they implent voter ID laws specifically to suppress Dem votes.
Hmm they did say “can’t” suggesting they acknowledge some folks have things blocking them
That’s called privilege. You literally don’t realize what a burden it is for some people to comply with voter registration requirements, because your life is such that it’s easy for you.
The “privilege” you are talking about is the exact same privilege the parent comment assumed:
I just have to show up with my ID, doesn’t matter if it’s for the EU parliament or the local city senate.
The “privilege” you are talking about is “having an ID card”. Every time you obtain, renew, replace, update, or otherwise contact the state bureau handling ID cards (usually, the DMV), they are required, under federal law, to update your voter registration unless you specifically decline.
The European standard is “get an ID card, show up and vote”. We implemented the European standard back in 1993.
What I’m describing has been federal law for over 30 years. The European criticism about ID cards is nonsensical. Every time you obtain, renew, or amend your drivers license or ID, you update your voter registration.
Remember the context of my comment: I am replying to European criticism of registration. The European approach is for everyone to obtain a government issued ID card and present it at the polling station. The NVRA already does this. We have already adopted the European solution to this problem.
Oof. I checked mine three times this cycle to be sure. Never know when some awful mistake, like voting in a Democratic primary, will get your TX Voter info deleted.
You know, though, since we’re mostly left-leaning around these parts, just tell me the secret code and I’ll meet you at a basement in the People’s Republic of Austin and we’ll discuss getting three non-citizens to vote however you’d like, and then we can dine on the flesh of Christians to celebrate!
How are you guys looking on adrenochrome down that way? Supply shortages have hit us hard on the east coast. I’d kill for some fresh, virginal blood right about now.
I’d kill for some fresh, virginal blood right about now.
ISWYDT. Congratulations to you for your dark cleverness, fellow leftist devil!
Unfortunately, it’s not much better here. The annoyingly heroic Governor Abbott has heroically deployed the heroic Texas Military Department and is disrupting our usual channels along the Rio Grande, both for commodity Catholics, and for nefarious agents to procure high-end evangelical targets in Sugar Land and Southlake. On the plus side, the lack of fresh victims is stressing our natural rivals the Chupacabras, so once we stuff the ballot box and then eliminate all those who stand in our way, Stanley in logistics says things will be back to normal fairly soon, as the extraction facilities in the Planned Parenthood clinics have not yet been seized. Remember to keep an eye out for the distribution points marked out with the “Y’all means All” Pride flags!
Oh, you fool. Christians are part of the body of Christ, and communion involves eating of the body of Christ, and communion is entering into a convenant as a living member of the body of Christ…
Don’t eat the Christians. That’s how it spreads.
…here’s the thing most folks don’t realise: as a metropolitan area, austin skews far more conservative than san antonio…
(we actually meet in the basement of the alamo)
Voter suppression go brrrrrr
Twitter and some other reich-wing places were doing fucky stuff like promoting register-to-vote sites that didn’t necessarily actually register you to vote. This is particularly true in Texas, because all the sites were online but Texas required you to register either in person or by snail mail. But the sites would display success messages and shit anyway.
Isn’t that a serious federal crime? How did they not get caught doing that?
News article: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/02/elon-musk-pac-voter-data-trump-harris.html
There was also trump handing out hundred dollar bills and musk offering money to people to register to vote, both of which also seem to be against the law. Fuck if I know why the government doesn’t seem to take this shit seriously.
AFAIK the government cannot take it seriously because the board of the FEC, like the Senate, is 50% Nazis: https://www.fec.gov/about/leadership-and-structure/
Edit/Update: It turns out that my last name has a capitol letter in the middle and they put a space in it. Thank god. I can actually vote this year.
Those are the kinds of inconsistencirs the GOP use to accuse you of voter fraud, even if you correct it. Don’t be surprised if some GOP busybody adds your name to a list of voter registrations to purge. Whenever they talk about voting irregularities and a rigged election, this is exactly the kind of voter disenfranchisement that they are trying to accomplish. Hell, question enough votes and you can get the votes of an entire region thrown out. You don’t need any proof to make the accusations, then they massive shit sandwich gets dropped in the lap of a few underpaided and understaffed people to substantiate. I recommend you vote as early as possible and follow up to make sure your vote gets counted.
